Spammer lands $11 billion fine

[jackc00]

http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=28733

Small town ISP wins huge payout

By Nick Farrell: Thursday 05 January 2006, 10:30
A SMALL ISP in the town of Clinton, Iowa, has just won one of the largest payouts ever extracted from a spammer.

The firm, CIS Internet Services, won $11.2 billion from James McCalla, from Florida, who was found to have sent millions of unsolicited e-mails advertising mortgage and debt consolidation services through the ISP's network.

A lawsuit claimed that McCalla sent more than 280 million illegal spam e-mail messages. Frims advertised in the spam had already been ordered to cough up a billion dollars in damages.

Prosecutors argued that under state law in effect at the time, CIS was entitled to $10 per illegal e-mail.

The Iowa court was told the defendants "falsely and illegally" represented that their e-mails originated from the CIS domain The e-mails used the cis.net as a return address to disguise the source of the e-mails to avoid complaints.

CIS acknowledged that it is unlikely to see any of the judgement money but said that it was time that spammers learnt that their actions would result in an economic death penalty.

More in the Quad City Times. (http://www.qctimes.net/articles/2006/01/04/news/local/doc43bb692ac9e86281138542.txt#top)

[Codegen]

Ouch.

[Aflac!]

Can't get blood out of a rock.

[JAC]

The spammer has to have assests. Those, at least, should be seized.

[hyperion]

Mmmm..the sweet taste of justice.

[aquariaguy]

This is so stupid.

$11 billion LOL

US is backwards. You can carry a gun, but you get fined for spam.

[DJ_Peanuts22]

yikes

[fantom]

CIS acknowledged that it is unlikely to see any of the judgement money but said that it was time that spammers learnt that their actions would result in an economic death penalty.

that's the money line...

cuz it seems like the guy just gets off with a slap on the wrist and some financial burden... while the companies advertised cough up the dough.

hell, bring out the death sentence for spamming in those numbers and broadcast the execution on the net!

that will teach them a lesson.

[anandwww]

if this is really gonna pay 11 billion then imagine how many billions he would have made spamming :-0

[superpal3]

Three cheers for justice seen to be done. :!:

[mattpiloto]

This is so stupid.

$11 billion LOL

US is backwards. You can carry a gun, but you get fined for spam.

Sounds good to me.

[Pete Jones]

The $11 billion was totalled by fining $10 per email spam.

So there is no way he made $10/email, probably more like 1cent/email. But as already stated, there is no way he's going to pay any of that cash.. and since it's just a fine and not criminally bonding, he can just go bankrupt and open up shop again.

Big woop.

These people should be criminally prosecuted and not allowed to use computers thereafter (or some derivative of the idea).

Actually, there's a lot more to the whole thing.

1. The spammer has been banned from using a computer for 3 years.

2. In the U.S., you can't declare bankruptcy on a court judgement

(now here's where it gets nasty)

3. The ISP doesn't expect to collect the money. This means the debt is forgiven. In the U.S. according to IRS publication 525, the spammer will owe taxes on the forgiven debt. In that case, he now owes the IRS just a little under 4 Billion! So now he's got the IRS crawling up his arse.

It's basically an economic death sentence.

--Pete

[ainsane]

has just won one of the largest payouts ever extracted from a spammer.

Uh... you mean there has been a larger fine? Holy crap! They might as well have just given this spammer a $500 quadrillion dollar fine!

[computer01]

I think the judge should have ordered that he personally agologise to everyone that he spammed. (In much the same way that Homer had to in the auto-dialer episode.)


Greetings friend,

As part of my court ordered restitution, I am writing to apologise to you for spamming your e-mail address.

If you can find it in your heart to forgive me, please send a $10 cheque to "Sorry Guy".

[bfg_16]

sucker....good riddance.......

[Paolo]

hmm, i noticed the junk mail folder in my inbox has been strangely lighter. this could be why??? hehe

[akito925]

I want to go put my frustration on the spammer there.. how many countless hours everyone get hit with spam, spyware on their computers. hate it!

[x86asm]

How is he supposed to pay that fine?!

That's steep even for a large company.